JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The clinical portion of the Army Substance Abuse Program moved to Madigan Army Medical Center on Oct. 1, while the non-clinical functions of education, training and substance testing will realign under Armed Forces Community Services.
The changes came about due to an Army-wide reassessment of the program's design, resources and effectiveness. The realignment of substance abuse treatment with behavioral health treatment follows national health care trends. In fact, about 30 percent of Soldiers with behavioral health conditions also have substance use disorders, and 50 percent of Soldiers with suicidal ideation also are found to use alcohol excessively.
Madigan's substance abuse services will be officially referred to as Substance Use Disorder Clinical Care and will include assessment, treatment and rehabilitation. Aligning these addiction treatment teams with other clinicians such as primary care managers, behavioral health providers and case managers will provide service members with better coordinated and thus better quality care.
Madigan substance abuse treatment will now be offered primarily in the embedded behavioral health clinics as the substance abuse counselors become a part of the EBH teams. Being located within units throughout Joint Base Lewis-McChord could lead to better and earlier detection of service members experiencing substance abuse, which could further lead to less treatment failures and better service retention overall. Currently, EBH clinics exist in the footprints of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division; the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division; and the 17th Field Artillery Brigade/555th Engineer Brigade. There are also EBH clinics in the Madigan Annex (the Denali and Yukon EBHs) that serve several JBLM units, on McChord Field, and near the Special Operations Forces.
Service members can self-refer for substance abuse treatment by visiting their EBH clinic. Prevention, training and testing services can still be accessed by visiting Building 2008.
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